Stamp of Approval – Flying Lotus f/ Kendrick Lamar “Never Catch Me”

RoQ Riffs!! What’s good?!?!? The weekend was pretty damn crazy for me, can’t even lie to you. I’ll explain about my excellent ABQ – TUC weekend showtrip in another post. This one is dedicated to a song I probably played 20 times on my way out of state. It is Flying Lotus’ brand new joint “Never Catch Me”, featuring Kendrick Lamar. Now, I’m sure you’ve already heard the song. The visual, however?? Have you seen this, yet?? I can’t find the proper words to describe the near spiritual experience I had, watching this thing. The children escaping death, dancing in celebration, skipping past their friends who themselves have not aged on into a distant future. The middle finger they give to the cycle of death by jumping in the hearse (through the back, which almost made my heart drop, thinking they were, in fact, dead).. and straight commandeering the vehicle and joy riding through the streets of their childhood.

Since there was no definitive explanation of what the video represents, it’s naturally open to interpretation. Given this, I rewatched it a few times in order to see if I could view it from a different prespective:

Is it really about children evading death?

.. or is it about their memory living through the childlike youthful spirit we all possess? When I think of someone who has passed, such as my friend and group mate Space Ghost out of the Inland Empire, CA, I often view him from the perspective as I did when I was 20 and he was older than me. I mean, of course, I also view him from the perspective of the grown man you see here, today… but for some, when you remember people, you remember all the elements and nuances which make them who they are.

You may remember the smell of the air, the temperature, a specific song, a girl you talked to at the time, a day trip you all may have taken, you know? So , I say that to ask, “what if the video represents the spirits racing through the memories we have collected during our youth?

No?

Okay, what if the two children in the video are actually escaping the present day’s memories and riding off “into the sunset” ? The child leaning out the window representing his memory and spirit being engraved into the neighborhood’s storied past?

There just so many ways you can interpret this video, which is why I’m so drawn to rewatching it. This is what underground / indie hiphop is all about.

One damn good music video, indeed.

I would like to know what you think about the video? How did you interpret it? Was it any different from mine? Similar?? Let us ALL know.